Texas Parks and Wildlife CommissionFinance Committee Meeting

Nov. 6, 2002

7 BE IT REMEMBERED, that heretofore on the 6th day of
8 November, 2002, there came on to be heard matters under the
9 regulatory authority of the Parks and Wildlife Commission
10 of Texas, in the Commission Executive Board Room of the
11 Texas Parks and Wildlife Headquarters Complex, beginning at
12 11:20 a.m. to wit:
13 APPEARANCES:
14 THE PARKS AND WILDLIFE COMMISSION:
15 FINANCE COMMITTEE:
16 Katharine Armstrong, Austin, Texas, Commission
17 Chair
18 Joseph B.C. Fitzsimons, San Antonio, Texas
19 Ernest Angelo, Jr., Midland, Texas, Committee
20 Chair
21 John Avila, Jr., Fort Worth, Texas
22 Alvin L. Henry, Houston, Texas
23 Philip Montgomery, Dallas, Texas
24 Donato D. Ramos, Laredo, Texas
25 Kelly W. Rising, M.D., Beaumont, Texas
26 Mark W. Watson, Jr., San Antonio, Texas
27 THE TEXAS PARKS AND WILDLIFE DEPARTMENT:
28 Robert L. Cook, Executive Director, and other personnel of
29 the Parks and Wildlife Department
ON THE RECORD REPORTING
(512) 450-0342
.
2
1 CHAIRMAN ARMSTRONG: Next is the Finance
2 Committee.
3 Chairman Angelo?
4 COMMISSIONER ANGELO: Thank you, ma'am.
5 We'll convene the Finance Committee meeting and
6 ask for approval of the Committee minutes from the
7 previous meeting. Do we have a motion to that effect or
8 any corrections?
9 COMMISSIONER FITZSIMONS: So move.
10 COMMISSIONER HENRY: Second.
11 COMMISSIONER ANGELO: All in favor say aye.
12 (A chorus of ayes.)
13 COMMISSIONER ANGELO: The minutes are approved.
14 ITEM 1: CHAIRMAN'S CHARGES
15 Mr. Cook, do you have the Chairman's charges?
16 MR. COOK: I have nothing really new to report
17 on charges at this time, except I would like to give you
18 just a little bit of an update. We continue the
19 implementation of the recommendations from our Business
20 Improvement Plan. We have been telling that story
21 basically all over Austin, and it is well received.
22 And I sincerely appreciate so much Suzy and her
23 staff for working on these items. Scott has been helping
24 relentlessly, and we've all been working on it. So it's
25 going well, and we are implementing those recommendations
ON THE RECORD REPORTING
(512) 450-0342
.
3
1 day by day.
2 One thing I'd like to call to your attention.
3 You may remember, a few weeks ago, in your Commission
4 brief, last time we met, in August, we made note of the
5 fact that we had just completed reconciliation of prior
6 year accounts, all the revenues and expenditures. We
7 have now finished all of FY '02, the year that was just
8 finished August 31, except for our license revenue. And
9 we've still got a little work to do on that, but that is
10 expected to be completed in December.
11 So we will be caught up and in tune, and we are
12 staying in contact with that as the months go by every
13 month. So we appreciate, again, all of the work done
14 there.
15 COMMISSIONER ANGELO: Thank you.
16 COMMISSIONER HENRY: Mr. Chairman?
17 COMMISSIONER ANGELO: Mr. Henry.
18 COMMISSIONER HENRY: I would just like for us
19 to personally as well as a Commission commend Bob and the
20 staff here for bringing us into the light here. Given --
21 particularly given the problems that we have with the
22 deficit and the legislature, the next time, this has to
23 help us a great deal, to have us on this kind of sound
24 financial footing. So I just want to commend you for
25 that.
ON THE RECORD REPORTING
(512) 450-0342
.
4
1 MR. COOK: Thank you, sir. I appreciate that.
2 And I know staff does. I've been doing a little visiting
3 downtown. And, you know, I always lead my comments to
4 the Representatives and Senators with an update on those
5 programs. And when I say, "Do you have any questions,"
6 they say, "You've already answered them. Thank you."
7 So it is something that we are continuing to
8 work with our oversight agencies and the folks downtown
9 to keep them informed on, and I believe it is going to
10 help.
11 COMMISSIONER ANGELO: Good.
12 ITEM 2: FINANCIAL REVIEW and UPDATE
13 All right. We'll move on to Item Number 2,
14 which will be a financial review and update from Suzy
15 Whittenton.
16 Suzy?
17 MS. WHITTENTON: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
18 For the record, I'm Suzy Whittenton, Chief
19 Financial Officer. In today's presentation, I'll cover
20 current revenue information, including some preliminary
21 results on the Big-Time Texas Hunts program, and briefly
22 update you on the license system, the operating budget
23 and the Legislative Appropriations Request process and
24 then briefly wrap up with the Business Improvement Plan
25 items.
ON THE RECORD REPORTING
(512) 450-0342
.
5
1 Starting with park revenue, for the first month
2 of the fiscal year, September, we were down nearly 6
3 percent, but that's only $76,000; it's very early in the
4 year to know whether there's going to be any kind of a
5 trend here.
6 We looked at what this meant by park location.
7 There are a lot of parks that did quite well in
8 September. And there were just a few that brought this
9 total revenue number down, and the main one was Garner
10 State Park, where revenue was down $42,000 in September.
11 And that is apparently due to the closure of the old
12 Garner section of that park due to the floods.
13 Also, Indian Lodge had 12 rooms under
14 renovation, and so they had a drop in revenue, as did
15 Palo Duro, where the concessionaire was closed in
16 September. So I don't think we're real concerned about
17 revenue being down for that first month; it looks like a
18 lot of the parks are doing well. And, hopefully, we'll
19 get revenue information for October next week, and we'll
20 watch it real closely.
21 In Account 9, boat registration fees and
22 license sales, first we'll look at boat fees. As of the
23 end of October, we were up approximately 5 percent. I
24 remember that last year we had a slow start in boat
25 revenue, which -- we ended up catching up and coming in
ON THE RECORD REPORTING
(512) 450-0342
.
6
1 the year quite well, but we never were really able to
2 explain why those numbers were down last year. So we
3 expected it to be up a little bit, and this may not mean
4 that the trend will continue on boat fees.
5 In license sales, we've sold over a million-six
6 hundred thousand licenses, and this includes stamps and
7 permits. This is nearly the same amount that we sold
8 last year at this time. It's -- about 50 percent of what
9 we expect to sell all year we've already sold.
10 If you look at just hunting licenses, we've
11 sold 770,000 licenses to hunters; we expect to sell about
12 a million for the year. So you can see we've sold the
13 bulk of our hunting licenses. It's interesting to note
14 that non-resident sales are up over 6 percent; in fact,
15 the general non-resident license is up 11 percent. And
16 then overall hunting license sales are up 2.2 percent.
17 Also up -- white-winged dove stamp sales were
18 up 16 percent. So there are some interesting new trends
19 there.
20 In fishing licenses, we've sold 852,000
21 licenses to anglers as of last week; we expect to sell
22 about a million-three. It's down just slightly over this
23 same time last year, less than 1 percent, but, again,
24 it's a little early to say in fishing licenses.
25 And what this translates into in terms of
ON THE RECORD REPORTING
(512) 450-0342
.
7
1 revenue is that revenue is up 1.3 percent, or about half-
2 a-million dollars. So it's good news. We've earned
3 about 57 percent of all revenue expected for the year, or
4 nearly $40 million, that we've brought in from license
5 sales.
6 In super-combo sales, you can see the trends
7 here since we started this license in 1997. The first
8 four years, sales nearly doubled and seem to have leveled
9 off somewhat. We've already sold 320,000 this year, and
10 we'll probably sell about 350-, but it's still continuing
11 to increase each year.
12 When you look at the super-combo and the senior
13 super-combo together, those sales are up 3.3 percent over
14 last year. Super-combo's up 2-1/2 percent, and the
15 senior super-combo's up 20 percent. That was a license
16 we just started in 2001, and it seems to grow a lot each
17 year.
18 COMMISSIONER ANGELO: And we want to thank you.
19 MS. WHITTENTON: Hopefully, with the aging of
20 our license holders, we won't --
21 COMMISSIONER ANGELO: I thought you were going
22 to say, The aging of the Commission.
23 (Laughter.)
24 MS. WHITTENTON: The baby boomers are all going
25 to start buying senior combos instead of super-combos.
ON THE RECORD REPORTING
(512) 450-0342
.
8
1 Big-Time Texas Hunts' application deadline was
2 last Saturday, which was November 2. Entries have to be
3 postmarked by that date to be accepted. So these are
4 real early results; we don't have all of the entries that
5 we've received into the system yet.
6 But, as of yesterday, we had about 67,000
7 entries that had been entered in our system. But the
8 mail house distributed about a week later than usual this
9 year, so we're getting a lot of entries here at the last
10 few days. We were getting about 4,000 licenses -- I mean
11 4,000 entries a day in the last several days. So we
12 think that this -- will probably have at least as many
13 applications as we had last year. And the drawing's not
14 going to be held until November 11.
15 In looking at the drawing types, the three most
16 popular hunts continue to be the Grand-slam, the White-
17 tail Bonanza and the Premium Buck Hunt. Those are the
18 same three big sellers from last year. And new this year
19 is the Gator Hunt. We haven't sold too many of those
20 applications just yet, but that would be a good one to
21 buy if you want better odds.
22 (Laughter.)
23 MS. WHITTENTON: And speaking of our system,
24 the WorldCom system continues to be very stable; it's
25 working very well. We sold 1.2 million licenses in the
ON THE RECORD REPORTING
(512) 450-0342
.
9
1 first six weeks, and we had a couple of days with over
2 90,000 licenses each day, and the system performed
3 beautifully. So it is a stable system.
4 We have a number of things that we've asked
5 WorldCom to develop in Phase 3. We have seen a delay in
6 progress on some of the Phase 3 items. That would
7 include things like the internet broker and the catalogue
8 maintenance. Part of that I think is due to the fact
9 that we're in negotiations right now on a contract
10 amendment and we're discussing damages -- and we expect
11 to complete that by Thanksgiving, but I think that's
12 partly why we're seeing a delay in Phase 3.
13 And in -- also, I guess, good news is that
14 WorldCom does have a performance bond and expects to have
15 that in place by the end of November. And we'll bring
16 you an update in January on options for where we go from
17 here.
18 COMMISSIONER MONTGOMERY: With WorldCom, do we
19 have the software in escrow?
20 MS. WHITTENTON: It is not in escrow right now.
21 We're -- that's under discussion right now. It's -- it
22 needs to be.
23 COMMISSIONER AVILA: Do we know whether Surety
24 is issuing the performance bond?
25 MS. WHITTENTON: I don't recall.
ON THE RECORD REPORTING
(512) 450-0342
.
10
1 MR. BORUFF: The assumption is yes, but we
2 haven't seen it yet.
3 MS. WHITTENTON: Turning now to the operating
4 budget, last year, fiscal year 2002, we spent all but 3
5 percent of what we had budgeted, which was about $5
6 million or 5-1/2 million. In looking at that by type,
7 we -- most of that was operating dollars, not salaries or
8 capital equipment. But 74 percent of it was from
9 operating expenses (travel, professional fees and
10 supplies) that were budgeted that didn't get spent. But
11 it's pretty hard to come in much closer than about 3
12 percent.
13 And by fund, most of that's in Fund 9 and -- a
14 bulk of it from Fund 9 dedicated stamp funds and
15 legislatively restricted pockets of money. So we don't
16 lose any of the money; it's just transferred to the next
17 year.
18 And in the current year, we've got about 82
19 percent of our budget remaining unspent and about 83
20 percent of the year left to go. So we're about on target
21 there.
22 Just a quick update on the Legislative
23 Appropriations Requests. We submitted our official
24 requests on September 11 and had our budget hearing with
25 the staff of the Legislative Budget Board and the
ON THE RECORD REPORTING
(512) 450-0342
.
11
1 Governor's Office of Budget and Planning on September 30.
2 And we're currently answering a lot of
3 questions from the staff of those agencies. They're
4 preparing their recommendations to their board, and they
5 will probably be making those recommendations soon this
6 month or, at the latest, in December. And then they'll
7 officially release their recommendations to the public
8 in -- at the first week of the session, in January. And
9 then we'll begin working from there with the members of
10 the legislature.
11 And lastly, with the Business Improvement
12 Plan -- Bob touched on that already. We -- in the plan,
13 there are 96 items that needed to be addressed. At this
14 point, 36 of those items are finished, which is 38
15 percent. And then there's an additional nine that are
16 over 90 percent of the way complete. And then all of the
17 items -- roughly all of the items, 96 percent of them,
18 are underway. There are a few that haven't started yet
19 because they're dependent upon other things finishing
20 first or they're low-priority items.
21 Bob mentioned where we were on the
22 reconciliation. We've also undertaken a comprehensive
23 review of financial processes. We're writing a lot of
24 policies and procedures, and we're redesigning the boat
25 registration and titling system and processes and getting
ON THE RECORD REPORTING
(512) 450-0342
.
12
1 our bank accounts all reconciled.
2 And long-term issues are with the system
3 interfaces; we've got four revenue systems that we're
4 writing interfaces into the financial system. The point-
5 of-sale system interface is complete, and the law
6 enforcement system interface is being written right now.
7 And we're working on boats and parks, also -- those two
8 systems.
9 We've done a lot of work on revenue forecasting
10 recently. We've, of course, documented the methodology,
11 and we're currently working with the Comptroller's Office
12 on the estimates that we turned in with our
13 appropriations request. We don't foresee any problems
14 with that at this point. We've just discussed those
15 estimates with the legislative offices, and I think the
16 Comptroller's Office is pretty close in agreement with
17 us; they won't release their estimate until January.
18 And then, in organizational issues, we've
19 filled most of our key positions. We've recently filled
20 the license manager position and several of the auditor
21 positions, the budget and planning manager and the
22 reconciliation analysts. So most all of those positions
23 are filled; there's just a couple left, and we're moving
24 along as fast as we can on this.
25 And that's all I have unless you have any
ON THE RECORD REPORTING
(512) 450-0342
.
13
1 questions.
2 COMMISSIONER ANGELO: Do we have questions from
3 the Commission?
4 Commission Montgomery?
5 COMMISSIONER MONTGOMERY: We had discussed
6 having a more thorough budget-versus-actual reporting
7 package at regular intervals for the Commission. Where
8 does that stand?
9 COMMISSIONER ANGELO: We discussed that at some
10 length yesterday -- Suzy and Drew and I. And I think
11 that her -- I'll let her speak to it, also, but that's
12 something that I think should be of interest to all of us
13 in that they're working on possibly having something for
14 the next meeting.
15 Is that correct?
16 MS. WHITTENTON: That's right. We'll get you
17 something on a more detailed level. Also, I can get for
18 you as early as today if you'd like more detail the
19 report on the Business Improvement Plan and each of those
20 96 items.
21 COMMISSIONER ANGELO: I'd like to remind all
22 the Commissioners to speak as closely to the microphone
23 as you can so that they can pick it up for the minutes
24 and record. I'm bad about that myself.
25 Any other questions or comments?
ON THE RECORD REPORTING
(512) 450-0342
.
14
1 CHAIRMAN ARMSTRONG: I would like to commend
2 staff for the very hard work they have done over the last
3 nine months or so or longer, actually. We have been
4 getting very favorable reviews from around town from our
5 leaders in the various offices about the cooperation, the
6 thoroughness and the willingness to work together. I'm
7 very proud of the work that the staff has done in this
8 area.
9 MS. WHITTENTON: Thank you.
10 COMMISSIONER ANGELO: I certainly second that.
11 Any other comments on this item?
12 (No response.)
13 ITEM 3: ARTWORK APPROVAL
14 COMMISSIONER ANGELO: If not, we'll move on to
15 Item Number 3.
16 Thank you, Suzy.
17 This is the approval of the artwork, and I
18 believe Frances Stiles will present this to us.
19 We're also honored to have in our presence
20 today Bubba Wood, who's kind of the power and mover and
21 shaker behind this whole effort.
22 We appreciate it, Bubba.
23 MS. STILES: Good morning. My name is Frances
24 Stiles, and I'm with the Administrative Resources
25 Division.
ON THE RECORD REPORTING
(512) 450-0342
.
15
1 Under the terms of the contract with
2 Collector's Covey for artwork design and marketing of the
3 Departmental prints program, the Commission approves the
4 artwork each year for the waterfowl, non-game, saltwater
5 and turkey stamps. This artwork is assembled with four
6 other prints prepared by the Parks and Wildlife staff and
7 combined into a collector's version consisting of eight
8 stamps.
9 Collectors Covey offers print reproductions
10 through their marketing network, and Parks and Wildlife
11 receives a portion of the sale from each print. This
12 year's artwork is being displayed on the easels, and I
13 have Mr. Bubba Wood with me to present the artwork.
14 MR. WOOD: Madam Chairman and Commissioners, my
15 name is Martin Wood. I own the Collectors Covey in
16 Dallas. And for -- this is the 23rd year that we've
17 presented art to the Commission for the duck stamp and
18 the 18th year for the saltwater. And boy, it seems like
19 yesterday.
20 On the left, next year's duck stamp we propose
21 is a Mottled Duck by Sherrie Russell Meline. And Ms.
22 Meline did our -- three years ago did -- two years ago
23 did our -- the Hooded Merganser stamp design. And,
24 frankly she was chosen because she was the only artist I
25 talked to that had any reference at all on a Texas
ON THE RECORD REPORTING
(512) 450-0342
.
16
1 Mottled Duck. And so it was a process of elimination,
2 but I really think she did a terrific job.
3 The Green Jay is by John Dearman for the non-
4 game stamp. I've got an idea for next year's non-game
5 stamp, an endangered species stamp. We might use a
6 donkey. But --
7 (Laughter.)
8 COMMISSIONER ANGELO: We'll strike that from
9 the record.
10 MR. WOOD: On the -- on your left is a trout by
11 Mark Sussino from Maryland. He -- Mark, I think, in 1994
12 did a redfish for us. He's probably the foremost marine
13 freshwater artist in the world, and we're very fortunate
14 to have him as the artist. And the turkey stamp this
15 year depicting the gobbler gobbling -- a shot, gobbling
16 at lightning is by Reggie McLeRoy, who's a new artist
17 we've never used before from Louisiana.
18 I'd be glad to answer any questions.
19 COMMISSIONER ANGELO: That saltwater is
20 spectacular.
21 MR. WOOD: Yes. Isn't that great? Yes. This
22 guy's really, really special.
23 COMMISSIONER ANGELO: That's spectacular.
24 MR. WOOD: Yes.
25 COMMISSIONER ANGELO: Yes.
ON THE RECORD REPORTING
(512) 450-0342
.
17
1 Any comments or questions?
2 (No response.)
3 COMMISSIONER ANGELO: Once again, we appreciate
4 all your efforts in this area.
5 MR. WOOD: Well, thank you all. I know this is
6 a proud day for -- I don't know. It just seems like you
7 all are happier today for some reason. I can't imagine
8 why. Thank you.
9 COMMISSIONER ANGELO: Thank you, very much.
10 Thank you, Frances.
11 MS. STILES: Thank you.
12 COMMISSIONER ANGELO: This item is something
13 that needs to go to tomorrow's agenda. If there's no
14 further questions or discussion, without objection, we'll
15 place it on the agenda for public meeting and comment and
16 action.
17 (No response.)
18 ITEM 4: COMMISSION POLICY RESOLUTION
19 COMMISSIONER ANGELO: There being no objection,
20 so done.
21 We'll move to Item Number 4. This has to do
22 with a Commission policy resolution and will be presented
23 by Gene McCarty and Suzy.
24 MR. McCARTY: Mr. Chairman and Commissioners,
25 I'm Gene McCarty, Chief of Staff for the Department. And
ON THE RECORD REPORTING
(512) 450-0342
.
18
1 to my right is Suzy Whittenton, Chief Financial Officer.
2 The item before you today is a resolution to amend two
3 Commission policies: Commission Policy 5, which is the
4 travel policy, and Commission Policy 9, which is the
5 budget policy.
6 The current Commission travel policy provides
7 for reimbursement of expenses incurred while attending
8 meetings; this is consistent with the statute. However,
9 the current policy also requires Commission approval for
10 any additional travel pertaining to Department programs,
11 and this is more restrictive than the statute and, we
12 believe, unnecessary. So we're proposing that we would
13 remove this restriction in an effort to make Commission
14 policy more consistent with the current statute on travel
15 reimbursement for commissioners.
16 I'll let Suzy explain the budget policy. And
17 then we'll take any questions concerning this policy
18 resolution.
19 MS. WHITTENTON: Thank you, Gene.
20 The revision to the budget policy is just a
21 technicality, a housecleaning issue. I made a mistake in
22 leaving out a few words on the policy we had you sign
23 last meeting.
24 And I think we have a handout that shows in
25 yellow the missing words, which was to exempt the federal
ON THE RECORD REPORTING
(512) 450-0342
.
19
1 grants and interest on bond proceeds from any additional
2 approval that you would have to make during the year,
3 which is what I told you in the -- on the federal
4 grants -- that policy has been in place for the last
5 couple of years -- so that when we get new federal grants
6 in, you don't have to give us additional approval to put
7 those in the budget.
8 And the -- we would ask the same for interest
9 on bond proceeds if the bond funds earn additional
10 interest that that money could be spent on the same types
11 of projects.
12 MR. McCARTY: Any questions?
13 COMMISSIONER ANGELO: Any questions or
14 comments?
15 (No response.)
16 COMMISSIONER ANGELO: There being none, this --
17 without objection, we'll place this item on the Thursday
18 Commission meeting and agenda for public comment and
19 further action.
20 And thank you all.
21 Is there any other business to come before the
22 Finance Committee?
23 (No response.)
24 COMMISSIONER ANGELO: There being none, the
25 Finance Committee is adjourned.
ON THE RECORD REPORTING
(512) 450-0342
.
20
1 CHAIRMAN ARMSTRONG: Before recessing for
2 executive session, I want to recognize the Texas A&M
3 students -- wildlife students that are here.
4 Would you please stand?
5 (Applause.)
6 CHAIRMAN ARMSTRONG: You're a great group.
7 Thank you for coming.
8 COMMISSIONER MONTGOMERY: Are they going to
9 grade us?
10 CHAIRMAN ARMSTRONG: No comments about
11 football.
12 COMMISSIONER ANGELO: I hope they don't grade
13 us.
14 (Laughter.)
15 CHAIRMAN ARMSTRONG: Let's see. We will now
16 break for executive session. Therefore, I would like to
17 announce that pursuant to the requirements of Chapter
18 551, Government Code, referred to as the Open Meetings
19 Law, an executive session will be held at this time for
20 the purpose of consideration of Section 551.072 of the
21 Texas Open Meetings Act regarding real estate matters.
22 (Whereupon, at 11:45 a.m., this Finance
23 Committee meeting was concluded.)
ON THE RECORD REPORTING
(512) 450-0342
.
21
1 C E R T I F I C A T E
2 MEETING OF: Texas Parks and Wildlife Department
3 Finance Committee
4 LOCATION: Austin, Texas
5 DATE: November 6, 2002
6 I do hereby certify that the foregoing pages,
7 numbers 1 through 21, inclusive, are the true, accurate,
8 and complete transcript prepared from the verbal
9 recording made by electronic recording by Penny Bynum
10 before the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.
11 12/10/02
12 (Transcriber) (Date)
13 On the Record Reporting, Inc.
14 3307 Northland, Suite 315
15 Austin, Texas 78731
ON THE RECORD REPORTING
(512) 450-0342